“Gaza has been a test for our mainstream media. They have failed.”
Jeremy Corbyn MP
By Richard Lions
Following the release last week of a groundbreaking report finds Lammy has misled public & reveals scale of arms exports to Israel (read in full here), and ahead of this Saturday’s national demonstration for Palestine, there has been a flurry of solidarity activity with the people of Gaza, including in Parliament where John McDonnell raised the report in a point of order on Monday, and a debate on Wednesday May 14 saw numerous Labour, independent and other MPs speak up for Palestine.
Additionally, earlier this week, media handbooks produced by the Independent Alliance MPs including Jeremy Corbyn, were spotted in the Parliament press lobby and across the Parliamentary estate. These handbooks, entitled “A guide to holding the Prime Minister to account”, provides “a list of questions that journalists may wish to ask the Prime Minister in light of an ongoing genocide” against the people of Gaza.
The Independent Alliance MPs are Adnan Hussain MP, Ayoub Khan MP, Iqbal Mohamed MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP and Shockat Adam MP and the questions in the handbook include:
• Why has the Prime Minister ignored Corbyn’s demand for an independent inquiry?
• When will the PM and the Foreign Secretary be returning to the House to retract statements denying the genocide in Gaza?
• Will the government release video footage from RAF spy planes that have flown over Gaza?
• When will the government publish a full list of military shipments from the UK to Israel since October 2023?
The handbook starts by saying: “Since the government was elected in July 2024, the Prime Minister has held numerous press conferences to mark a range of policy announcements, from increases in military spending to the development of a theme park. These press conferences are an opportunity for the British media to hold the Prime Minister to account over the government’s role in Israel’s military assault on Gaza.”
“To that end, we trust this handbook will assist you in establishing truth and accountability.”
As Jeremy Corbyn said, “Gaza has been a test for our mainstream media. They have failed. They have failed to stand up for their colleagues being murdered abroad. They have failed to treat all lives with equal worth. And they have failed to hold our government accountable for its complicity in crimes against humanity. That is how you normalise a genocide – and to that end, the media have shamefully succeeded.”
We must all – whether in Labour or another party or no party at all, to work together to hold Starmer and Lammy to account for the Government’s disgraceful role in Gaza – and also call out those who refuse to do. And we must keep speaking up for Palestine.
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